Peter D Robinson

Family

Robinson is the son of David Robinson (1944–2008) and Mary E. Robinson (nee Harrison, born 1946). He grew up in Barton Waterside, Barton-on-Humber, Lincolnshire, and was educated locally at Castledyke Primary School and Baysgarth Comprehensive School.

Robinson married Denise Krogh on November 13, 1999.

Education

Robinson graduated from what was then the College of Ripon and York St John in 1991 with a B.A.(Hons) degree in history and theology from the University of Leeds.

Ministry

Robinson had a brief period as a lay worker in an open Evangelical parish in the Church of England, but tended to identify with a broadly High Church position. He then joined the Anglican Catholic Church following the Church of England's decision to ordain women to the priesthood as he identified with the traditional High Church and Anglo-Catholic opposition to the move. He attended Holyrood Seminary, Liberty, New York (1993–94) and was ordained deacon by Leslie Hamlett (Bishop of the Missionary Diocese of England and Wales, ACC) on July 3, 1994, and priest by John Whiting (Bishop of Silchester - Traditional Church of England) on December 10, 1995. Increasingly uncomfortable with Anglo-Catholicism, Robinson served in the Free Church of England from 1996 to 1998, receiving conditional ordination as a presbyter from the FCE primus, the Right Rev. Cyril Milner, on November 5, 1996. He remained in the FCE until the growing tensions within that denomination lead to his seeking an alternative. He also served in the Traditional Anglican Communion (1998–2007) firstly in the Church of Ireland (Traditional Rite), then in the Anglican Church in America, before joining the United Episcopal Church of North America in October 2007.

Robinson was minister of Providence Chapel, Barton-on-Humber, Lincolnshire (1995–99), in the Free Church of England whilst also licensed to the Church of Ireland (Traditional Rite) and assisting in their congregations at Stradbally, Co. Leix, Prehen, Co. Londonderry; and Newtownards, Co. Down as required; during which period he showed an interest in both the Protestant Reformation Society and in the conservative Evangelical pressure group Reform. After moving to the United States, he served as interim rector of St. Andrew's Anglican Church, Los Alamitos, California (2000–2001), and has been the rector of St. Paul's Anglican Church in Prescott, Arizona, since 2002. He also served as an examining chaplain in the ACA's Diocese of the West from 2001 to 2007; as President of the Diocesan Standing Committee (2003–2007); and as Area Dean of Arizona (2003–2007). Robinson is also a long-standing member of the Prayer Book Society and has contributed articles to their magazine, Mandate, on two early American bishops, John Henry Hobart and Richard Channing Moore. He also had links with the Forward in Faith movement, but resigned when the organization modified its statement of faith in July 2013. He does not closely identify with a particular churchmanship, but identifies the theological character of Anglicanism as being defined firstly by the Bible, then secondly by the Thirty-nine Articles of Religion, and the 1662 Book of Common Prayer.

Robinson was elected as a suffragan bishop in the United Episcopal Church in North America on October 29, 2008, at the 9th General Convention of the UECNA in Coshocton, Ohio. His consecration took place on January 10, 2009, at Trinity Lutheran Church, St. Louis, Missouri, and he was consecrated by the UECNA archbishop, the Most Reverend Stephen C. Reber; the Right Reverend Presley Hutchens of the Anglican Catholic Church and Bishop of the Diocese of New Orleans; and the Right Reverend William Wiygul of the Anglican Province of Christ the King and Bishop of the Diocese of the Southeastern States.

Current

In November 2009 became Missionary Bishop of the West, when the missionary dioceses of the UECNA were reactivated after being in abeyance since the early 1990s. He continued to serve as rector of St. Paul's Anglican Church, Prescott, Arizona, and as the liaison officer for the United Episcopal Church in its dealings with the Anglican Catholic Church and the Anglican Province of Christ the King. He was named as archbishop coadjutor in April 2010 by the National Council of the United Episcopal Church (an office which, technically speaking, does not exist in the present UECNA Canons) and, as senior bishop with jurisdiction by date of consecration, assumed the responsibilities of the archbishop/presiding bishop upon the retirement of the Most Reverend Stephen C. Reber on September 6, 2010. On May 12, 2011, Robinson was elected as the presiding bishop by the House of Bishops, and confirmed in that office by a vote of the UECNA's 10th General Convention meeting in Heber Springs, Arkansas, becoming the fifth holder of that office since 1981. The same meeting officially recognized the custom of referring to the UECNA's presiding bishop as the archbishop, which style had been used under the original constitution and canons of the UECNA in use from 1981 to 1992, and had never been completely abandoned.

In 2013, Robinson began serving as episcopal patron of the Anglican Bible and Book Society.

Hobbies and interests

In his spare time Robinson enjoys reading detective novels and listening to classical music. He is the present Chieftain of the Scots of Prescott, a Scottish cultural organization. He also plays the Scottish Small Pipes and has a deep interest in Scandinavian Lutheranism, especially its liturgical usages. His other interests include Scottish and Irish folk music, the history of the Scottish Episcopal Church, Manx history and culture, as well as model railroading.